Page 16 of Forbidden Flames

“Just two lonely people having a nice Christmas,” she whispered as she grabbed her purse and walked out of her house, keys in hand and her leather notebook with the details of the club issues under her arm.

Chapter 17

Pulling into her driveway, Hendrix noticed that she was just coming out of her small house, looking beautiful and…sad.

Hendrix’s chest ached and he jumped out of his truck.

“Em,” he started, but stopped when she lifted her hand, palm out.

“I get it, Hendrix,” she said, her voice cracking. Slowly, she inhaled, looking off in the distance. “We were stuck together for Christmas Day. Just two lonely people who wanted to share something special for the holiday.” She breathed in slightly, then slowly exhaled.

Hendrix stared at her, stunned. Did she really believe that? Was yesterday and last night only because she was lonely and hadn’t wanted to spend Christmas alone?

That’s when he saw the slight tremble in her chin. Looking closely, he noticed that her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“Oh hell no!” he grumbled and moved forward. Her mouth fell open with alarm, but he didn’t stop. This was Em and he’d wanted her for too long. Last night’s passion couldn’t be faked, nor could her reaction to his touch be attributed to anything less than genuine emotions!

Instead of stopping, he leaned down and, with both of his hands, held her head still while he kissed her. It was slow at first, giving her the option of pushing him away. But within only one, perhaps two, seconds, she whimpered and inched closer. He heard a thud, then felt her arms lift, wrapping around his neck. He heard a choking sound but couldn’t stop touching her, couldn’t stop kissing her. This was Emily. No way was hegoing to relinquish what they could have with each other simply because he’d stupidly left without leaving her a note to explain.

When he finally lifted his head to stare down at her, there was no way to determine where one started and the other stopped. Emily’s arms and one leg were wrapped around him and he’d lifted her higher so that she was nearly riding his thigh while he pressed her back against his truck. When he finally lifted his mouth, they were breathing heavily as they stared into each other’s eyes.

“Did that feel like loneliness?” he growled, slipping his hand under her shirt so that he could feel her, not her jacket or her boring work clothes.

“No,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here this morning when you woke up.”

There was a long silence, but he felt her fingers slide against his neck and that gave him hope. Finally, she asked, “Why weren’t you?”

Slowly, he lowered her feet back to the ground, but he didn’t let go. Hendrix needed to hold her, needed to feel her soft curves pressed against his body, even if they were both covered in layers of winter clothes.

“Someone broke into the club last night,” he told her. His eyes turned serious. “Em, he was trying to get into your office.”

She stared at him for a moment, then shook her head, asking, “Who? Why?”

He brushed a finger over her cheek, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t know why, but it was Gerald Albright.”

“Gerald?” she hissed and pushed against his chest. “Could he be the one that…?” she stopped and looked up at him. “Maybe…I should show you something.”

“What’s up?” he asked, immediately tense and seeing a wariness in her eyes now. Something he knew he wasn’t going to like.

“Just,” she started again, only to stop and shake her head. “Come inside. This might be related, although I don’t know for sure.”

Hendrix followed her inside, unable to keep his eyes off her very nice ass. He’d always been drawn to that part of her…well, all of her, actually…but now that he’d held her butt in his hands, he knew that it was even better than he’d imagined.

“Here,” she said, shoving a small box into his hands.

Hendrix looked down at the box, pulling his mind away from the possibility of holding her just like that again while he…! Not the right time, he reminded himself as he tried to figure out why she’d handed him a shoe box.

“What’s this?” he asked, pulling the lid off and peering inside.

“I’ve received these letters, one at a time, for…I don’t know how long. At first, the letters were benign and I’d throw them away. So there are others besides these.”

The letters!Finally!

“What did the first few say?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he read through the top letter. Then he hissed with fury. “This is disgusting!” The things this bastard said he wanted to do to Emily were vile! Blood and knives and…well, that’s just sick! There was a sexual undertone to the next letter, but it was still a sadistic description from a mentally unstable person.

“The first one I received was just a nice message. Some guy telling me that I looked nice and that he thought I was pretty.” She shrugged, shifting from one foot to the other. “I didn’t think anything of it. Since the letter wasn’t signed, I just threw it away and didn’t think about it again. Until the second letter arrived. Same as the first one. Basically the same thing. The guy said that he’d noticed me the previous night and thought I looked pretty.”

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